The Class-State and the Modern Proletariat.
1.--Our Public Life.
The development of society has been a very rapid one in all civilized
states of the world during recent decades, and any new achievement
in any realm of human activity still hastens this development.
Thereby our social conditions have been put into a state of unrest,
fermentation and dissolution, the like of which had never been known
before. The feeling of security of the ruling classes has been
shaken, and the institutions are losing their old stability whereby
they might resist the attacks that are made upon them from all
sides. A feeling of discomfort, insecurity and dissatisfaction has
taken possession of all strata of society, the highest as well as
the lowest. The tremendous exertions made by the ruling classes to
remove this unbearable state of affairs by patching and mending the
body social, prove useless because they are insufficient. They only
increase their sense of insecurity and heighten their discomfort and
unrest. They have scarcely inserted one beam into the dilapidated
structure in the form of some legislation, when they discover a dozen
other decayed spots that require repairs still more urgently. At
the same time they have constant quarrels and serious differences
of opinion among themselves. A measure introduced by one party to
appease the growing dissatisfaction of the masses, is condemned by
the other party as an unpardonable weakness and leniency that is
bound to stimulate a desire for still greater concessions. That is
clearly seen by the endless discussions in all parliaments, whereby
new laws and institutions are constantly being introduced without
attaining any state of rest and satisfaction. Among the ruling
classes themselves certain extreme differences exist, some of which
are insurmountable, and these still intensify the social conflict.
The governments--and not only those in Germany--sway to and fro like
reeds shaken by the wind. They must lean on something, for they
cannot exist without a support, and so they incline first toward one
side and then toward another. There is hardly a progressive state in
Europe in which the government can count upon a permanent majority in
parliament. Social extremes break up the majorities; and the constant
fluctuations of the market, especially in Germany, undermine the
last remnant of confidence that the ruling classes still placed in
themselves. To-day one party is in control and to-morrow another.
What the one has constructed with much difficulty is torn down by
the other. The confusion increases, the dissatisfaction becomes more
lasting, the struggles multiply and wear out more human strength in
a few months than formerly in an equal number of years. Besides,
the material demands, in the form of various taxes, are constantly
increasing, and there is no limit to the public debts.
The modern state is by its very nature a class-state. We have seen how
it became necessary to protect private property and to regulate, by
means of laws and institutions, the relations of the proprietors to one
another and to the non-possessors. Whatever forms the appropriation
of property may assume in the course of historical development,
it is established by the very nature of private property that the
greatest proprietors are the most powerful persons in the state and
shape it in accordance with their interests. It is, furthermore,
established by the nature of private property that an individual
can never obtain enough of same and employs all available means in
order to increase it. He therefore endeavors so to shape the state
that it may best enable him to attain his ends. Thereby laws and
institutions of the state naturally develop into class laws and
class institutions. But the powers of the state, and all who are
interested in maintaining the present order, would not be able to
uphold it long against the mass of those who are not interested in
its maintenance, if this mass would recognize the true nature of
existing conditions. This recognition must therefore be prevented at
any cost. The masses must be maintained in ignorance concerning the
nature of existing conditions. They must be taught that the present
order has always existed and will always continue to exist, that
seeking to overturn it, means to rebel against the institutions of
God himself. That is why religion is made to serve this purpose. The
more ignorant and superstitious the masses are, the more favorable
are the circumstances to the ruling classes. To maintain them in
ignorance and superstition is in the interest of the state; that
is, in the interest of those classes who regard the state as an
institution to protect their class privileges. These are, besides
the propertied class, the hierarchy of church and state, who all
unite in the common task of protecting their interests.
But, with the endeavor to win possessions and with the increased
number of possessors, the general status of civilization is raised to
a higher level. The circle of those increases who seek to participate
in the fruits of progress and who succeed in so doing to a certain
degree. A new class arises on a new basis. It is not regarded by
the ruling class as being entitled to equal rights, but is prepared
to venture anything in order to attain equality. Finally new class
struggles arise and even violent revolutions, whereby the new class
obtains recognition and power. Especially by espousing the cause
of the mass of the oppressed and exploited, it attains the victory
with their aid.
But as soon as the new class has come into power it unites with
its former enemies against its former allies, and after some time
class struggles begin anew. The new ruling class has meanwhile
imprinted the entire body social with the character of its means of
subsistence; but as it can increase its power and its possessions
only by letting a part of its achievements fall to the share of
the class that it oppresses and exploits, it thereby heightens the
ability and understanding of that class. By so doing, the ruling
class furnishes the oppressed class with the weapons that shall
achieve its own destruction. The struggle of the masses now becomes
directed against all class rule, in whatever form it may exist.
This last class is the modern proletariat, and its historical
mission will be not only to achieve its own liberation, but also the
liberation of all who are oppressed, which includes the liberation
of woman.
The nature of the class state not only involves the political
oppression of the exploited classes, it also involves that they are
made to bear the heaviest burdens for the maintenance of the state.
That is made easy when the burdens are imposed in such a manner
that their true character is concealed. It is obvious that high
direct taxes must foster a rebellious spirit if the income of those
on whom they are imposed is a small one. Wisdom therefore bids the
ruling classes to be moderate in this respect, and to introduce a
system of indirect taxation instead by placing a tax on the most
necessary commodities. Thereby the taxes are paid for in the price
of the commodities in an invisible way, and the majority remain
ignorant as to the amount of taxes that they actually pay. To what
extent the consumer is taxed on bread, salt, meat, sugar, coffee,
beer, oil, etc., is difficult to calculate, and most persons have no
idea to what extent they are fleeced. These taxes weigh heaviest on
large families; they are therefore the most unjust form of taxation
imaginable. On the other hand, the possessing classes pride themselves
on the direct taxes that they pay, and by the height of these taxes
they measure the political rights that they enjoy and that they
withhold from the non-possessing classes. Moreover, the possessing
classes provide aid and assistance from the state for themselves by
means of the tariff and other institutions that amount to millions
of dollars annually at the expense of the masses. The masses are
furthermore exploited by the increased cost of living as a result
of capitalistic organization and the formation of trusts; these the
state either favors by its policy or suffers to exist, and in some
cases it even supports them by actual participation.
As long as the masses can be kept in ignorance concerning the nature
of all these measures, they in no way endanger the state or the
ruling social order. But as soon as the exploited classes become
conscious of their exploitation--and the growing political education
of the masses enables them to become so--the glaring injustice of
these measures arouses bitterness and indignation. The last spark of
confidence in a sense of justice of the ruling powers is destroyed.
The true nature of the state that resorts to such measures, the
true nature of the society that favors them, become recognized. The
struggle for the ultimate destruction of both is the result.
In their endeavor to do justice to the most conflicting interests,
state and society organize one institution upon another, but no old
one is thoroughly removed and no new one is thoroughly carried out.
Half measures are resorted to that fail to satisfy anyone. The new
requirements of civilization that have grown up among the people
require some consideration, if the powers that be are not to risk
everything. To meet these requirements even insufficiently entails a
considerable expense, all the more so because there are a number of
parasites everywhere. But alongside of these new institutions all the
old institutions that are averse to the purposes of civilization are
maintained. As a result of social extremes they are even expanded and
become all the more troublesome and oppressive, because increasing
knowledge and judgment loudly proclaim them to be ~superfluous~.
The police department, the army, the courts, the prisons, all are
extended and become more expensive; but thereby neither the outward
nor the inward security is strengthened; rather the contrary takes
place.
A highly unnatural condition has gradually developed in regard
to the international relations of nations to one another. These
relations increase with the growing production of commodities, with
the increased exchange of commodities that is constantly made easier
by improved methods of distribution, and by the fact that economic
and scientific achievements are becoming the common property of all
nations. Trade and customs treaties are made, and, with the aid of
international means, expensive thoroughfares are constructed. (The
Suez Canal, the St. Gothard Tunnel, etc.) Individual states support
steamship lines that help to increase the traffic between various
countries of the globe. The Postal Union was formed--a marked
progress in civilization--international congresses are held for
various practical and scientific purposes; the mental products of
the several nations are disseminated among all the civilized nations
of the world by translation into their respective languages, and by
all these international activities the ideal of the ~brotherhood
of man~ is fostered and increased. But the political and military
condition of Europe and the rest of the civilized world forms a
striking contradiction to this development. Jingoism and national
hostilities are artificially fostered here and there. Everywhere
the ruling classes seek to maintain the belief that the people are
brimful of hostile feeling toward one another and are only waiting
for an opportunity to attack and destroy each other. The competitive
struggle of the capitalist classes of the various countries among
themselves, becomes international, and assumes the character of a
struggle of the capitalist class of one country against the capitalist
class of another country. This struggle, supported by the political
blindness of the masses, causes the nations to vie with one another
in warlike preparations the like of which the world has never seen
before. This rivalry created armies of a prodigious size; it created
tools of murder and destruction for warfare on land and sea of such
perfection, as could be made possible only by our age of advanced
technical development. This rivalry creates a development of the
means of destruction that finally leads to self-destruction. The
maintenance of the armies and navies necessitates an immense expense
that grows with every year and is ultimately bound to ruin the
wealthiest nation. During the year 1908 Germany alone spent over
15 million marks ($3,750,000) for its army and navy, including the
expenses for pensions and the interest on the national debt as far
as same had been contracted for military purposes, and this sum is
increasing annually. The following list, compiled by Neymarck, shows
the combined military expenses of the European states:
1866. 1870. 1887. 1906.
Army and navy 3,000 3,000 4,500 6,725
National debts 66,000 75,000 117,000 148,000
Interest 2,400 3,000 5,300 6,000[188]
As shown by this list, Europe spends 6,725 million francs
($1,362,000,000) annually for armies and navies, and 6,000 million
francs ($1,215,000,000) interest on debts that have mostly been
incurred to serve warlike purposes. A fine state of affairs, indeed!
America and Asia have begun to follow the example set by Europe.
The United States spent $967,000,000 in 1875, and $3,592,250,000 in
1907 and 1908. In Japan the expenses for army and navy, including
the pensions, amounted to $51,250,000 in 1875 and to $551,000,000
in 1908 and 1909.
As a result of these expenses objects of education and civilization are
grievously neglected. The expenses for external defense predominate
and undermine the true purpose of the state. The growing armies
comprise the healthiest and strongest elements of the nation, and
for their education and training all physical and mental forces are
employed, as if training for wholesale murder were the most important
mission of our age. At the same time the tools of warfare and murder
are constantly being improved. They have attained such a degree of
perfection in regard to speed, range, and force of destruction,
that they have become a terror alike to friend and foe. If this
tremendous apparatus should be set in motion--which would imply that
the warring European forces would take the field with from 16 to
20 million men--it would be seen that it has become ~uncontrollable~
and ~indirigible~. No general can command such masses; no battlefield
is large enough to draw them up; no administration can provide for
their maintenance during any length of time. In case a battle had
taken place there would not be sufficient hospitals to care for the
wounded, and to bury the dead would become almost impossible. If we
furthermore take into consideration what disturbances and devastations
would be wrought by a European war on the field of economics, we may
say, without fear of exaggeration: ~The next war will be the last
war.~ The number of failures in business would exceed all previous
records. The export trade would come to a standstill and thousands
of factories would accordingly be forced to shut down. The supply
of provisions would run short, whereby the cost of living would be
enormously increased. It would require millions of dollars to support
the families whose bread-winners had gone to war. But whence should
come the means to meet all these prodigious expenses? At present the
German empire alone spends from eleven to twelve million dollars
daily to maintain its army and navy in readiness for war.
The political and military status of Europe has taken a trend of
development that may easily end with a catastrophe by which bourgeois
society will be engulfed. On the height of its development this
society has created conditions which make its own existence untenable.
Itself the most revolutionary society that has hitherto existed, it
has furnished the means for its own destruction.
In a great many of our municipalities a desperate state of affairs
gradually begins to prevail, since it becomes almost impossible to
satisfy the annually increasing demands. These demands are especially
heavy in our rapidly growing large cities and industrial centers,
and most of them cannot meet the demands made upon them in any other
way than by raising the taxes and by borrowing. Schools, building
of streets, illumination, water-works, sanitation, educational and
wellfare work, police and administration entail constantly increasing
expenses. Besides, the well-to-do minority makes very heavy demands
on the community. Higher institutions of learning are demanded, the
building of museums and theatres, the laying out of fine residential
districts and parks, with appropriate illumination, pavement, etc.
The majority of the population may object to these privileges, but
they are an innate part of the nature of conditions. The minority
are in power and they use this power to satisfy their requirements
of civilization at the expense of the community. These increased
requirements are justified, too, for they represent progress. Their
only shortcoming is that they are mainly enjoyed by the possessing
classes alone, while they ought to be for the common enjoyment of all.
Another evil is that the administrations are often expensive without
being good. Not infrequently the officials are incompetent and lack
proper understanding; while town or city councillors are generally so
much engaged with the care for their private existence that they are
unable to make the sacrifices that a thorough performance of their
duties would require. Often public positions are used to further
private interests to the detriment of the community. The tax-payers
must bear the consequences. A thorough and satisfactory reform of these
conditions cannot be attained by present-day society. In whatever
form the taxes may be levied, the dissatisfaction increases. In a
few decades most of the municipalities will be unable to satisfy
their demands by the present form of taxation and administration.
In the municipalities, as in the state, the need of a thoroughgoing
transformation becomes manifest. In fact, the greatest demands for
purposes of civilization are made upon them; they form the nucleus
from which the social transformation will proceed as soon as the
will and power for such transformation exist. But how shall this
be attained while private interests control everything and public
interests are of secondary importance?
This is, briefly stated, the condition of our public life, which is
but a reflection of the social condition of society as a whole.
[188] A. Neymarck--La Statistique international des valeurs mobilières.
Bulletin de l’institut international de statistique. Copenhagen,
1908.
2.--Aggravation of Social Extremes.
In present-day life the struggle for existence is becoming
increasingly difficult. The war of all against all is raging and is
waged relentlessly, often without any discrimination in the methods
employed. The French saying: “Ote-toi de la, que je m’y mette” (get
out of there that I may take your place), is practiced in actual
life. The weak must make way for the strong. If the material force
of money, of property, does not suffice, the meanest methods are
resorted to that a desired aim may be attained. Lies, fraud and
deception, forgery and perjury, the worst crimes are committed for
this end. As one individual is arrayed against another in this
warfare, thus we find class against class, sex against sex, age
against age. Advantage is the only arbiter of human relations; every
other consideration is set aside. As soon as advantage requires it,
thousands upon thousands of workingmen and women are cast out into the
street, and become public charges or enforced vagabonds. In masses
workers wander from place to place through the length and breadth
of the land, and society fears and despises them more and more as
the duration of their unemployment makes their external appearance
more shabby, and, eventually, also demoralizes their character.
Respectable society does not know what it means to do without the
simplest requirements of order and cleanliness for months, to wander
about with an empty stomach, and to reap nothing but ill-disguised
disgust and contempt from those who are the upholders of this system.
The families of these unfortunates suffer the hardest privations and
become dependent on public charity. Sometimes despair drives parents
to awful crimes against their children and themselves, to murder and
suicide. Especially during hard times these deeds of despair increase
to an appalling degree. But the ruling classes are not perturbed by
such occurrences. The same editions of the daily papers that report
such deeds, caused by poverty and despair, also contain reports of
festive revelries and glittering official pageants, as if there were
joy and abundance everywhere.
The general need and the increasingly difficult struggle for existence
drive more and more women and girls into lives of degradation and
ruin. Demoralization, brutality and crime increase, while the prisons,
the penitentiaries and the so-called reformatories can hardly contain
the mass of their inmates.
Crime is closely connected with social conditions. Society does not
wish to admit this fact. Like the ostrich, that conceals its head
in the sand not to see approaching danger, we deceive ourselves in
regard to these conditions that should lead to self-accusation. We
try to persuade ourselves that it is all due to laziness, love of
pleasure and lack of piety on the part of the workingmen. This is
self-delusion and hypocrisy of the worst kind. As social conditions
grow more unfavorable for a majority of the population, crimes become
more numerous and more severe. The struggle for existence assumes
its most cruel and violent form and creates a condition in which
men regard one another as mortal enemies. Social bonds are severed
and human beings treat each other with hostility.[189]
The ruling classes who do not see, nor wish to see, to the bottom of
things, seek to remedy these evils in their own way. When poverty and
need increase, and, as a result, demoralization and crime increase
likewise, the source of the evil is not sought out in order to plug
up this source, but the products of these conditions are punished. As
the evils grow and the number of evil-doers increases, persecutions
and penalties are made more severe. The belief seems to be that
the devil can be driven out by Satan. Even Professor Haeckel deems
it justifiable to punish crime with severe penalties and to resort
to capital punishment.[190] On this point he is fully agreed with
reactionaries of all shades who otherwise are his mortal enemies.
Haeckel holds the opinion that incorrigible criminals and wrong-doers
should be exterminated like weeds that rob the plants of air, light
and the soil to grow in. If Haeckel had devoted himself partly to the
study of social sciences instead of devoting himself to the natural
sciences exclusively, he would know that these criminals could be
transformed into useful members of human society, if society would
offer them the needful conditions of existence. He would know that
the extermination of individual criminals would no more prevent the
perpetuation of new crimes, than weeds could be prevented from growing
while their roots or their seeds remained. Man will never be able
to prevent absolutely the formation of harmful organisms in nature.
~But he will be able so to improve the social order that he himself
has created, that the conditions of existence shall be favorable to
all, that each individual shall be enabled to develop freely, and
shall no longer be compelled to satisfy his hunger, his desire for
possessions, or his ambitions, at the expense of others.~[191]
They who seek to remove crime by removing its causes cannot favor
violent methods of repression. They cannot prevent society from
protecting itself in its own way against criminals whom it can, of
course, not give free scope, but they demand all the more urgently
a transformation of society that would mean a removal of the causes
of crime.
The connection between social conditions and misdemeanors and
crimes has frequently been shown by statisticians and political
economists.[192] One of the most frequent misdemeanors, that is
regarded as a misdemeanor by our society, in spite of all its
Christian teachings about charity--is mendicancy. In connection
with this subject the statistics of the Kingdom of Saxony teach
us that the increase of the great crisis that began in Germany
in 1890 and attained its height from 1892 to 1893, the number of
persons punished for mendicancy increased likewise. During 1890 the
number of persons punished for this misdemeanor was 8,815; during
1891, 10,075, and during 1892, 13,120. Similar facts were observed
in Austria, where, during 1891, 90,926 persons were convicted of
mendicancy and vagrancy, and 98,998 persons during 1892.[193] This
is a considerable increase.
Pauperization of the masses on the one hand and increasing wealth
on the other is the stamp of our period. The trend of present-day
development may be well judged from the fact that in the United States
five men--John D. Rockefeller, the late Harriman, J. Pierpont Morgan,
W. K. Vanderbilt, and G. J. Gould--in the year 1900, owned together
over 800,000,000 dollars, and that they possessed sufficient influence
to control the economic life of the United States and partly also
that of Europe. In all civilized countries the large combinations of
capitalists form the most noteworthy phenomenon of the recent period
and are constantly gaining more social and political importance.
[189] Plato already recognized the results of such conditions. He
wrote: “A state in which classes exist is not one single state but
two. The poor form one, and the rich form the other. Both dwell
together, but always way-lay one another. Finally the ruling class
becomes unable to wage a war, for then it depends upon the masses
whom, when armed, it fears more than the enemy.”--Plato, The State.
Aristotle says: “Widespread poverty is an evil, for it can hardly
be prevented that such persons become promoters of disorder.”
[190] Natural History of the Creation.
[191] A similar thought is expressed by Plato in his “State”: “Crimes
are caused by ignorance, by bad education and institutions of the
state.” Plato was better acquainted with the nature of society than
many of his learned followers two thousand and three hundred years
later. That is not very encouraging.
[192] M. Sursky--New facts concerning the economic causes of crime.
“New Era.”
[193] H. Herz--Crime and Criminals in Austria. The author says: “The
prevailing economic status must be taken into consideration in the
judgment of crime. The organization of production and consumption
and the distribution of wealth has a marked influence on crime in
many ways.”